The ICA and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of the Government of Japan, Tokyo signed an agreement for the implementation of the “Capacity Building Project for Farmers’ Organizations to Support the Development of Food Value Chain in Asia and Africa in FY-2020” for the period from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021, which comprises four programmes:

• Programme-1: Training Course on Strengthening Management and Development of Agricultural Cooperatives and Farmers’ Organizations in Asia and Africa.
• Programme-2: Training Course on Empowering of Rural Women for Improvement of their Leadership and Business and Management.
• Programme-3: Training Course on Strengthening of Marketing through Improvement of Quality of Farm Produce and Expansion of Marketing Channels.
• Programme-4: Follow-up Guidance and Survey of Ex-participants.

Given the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing restrictions on travel, the training programmes are being held online.

The training course on “Empowering of Rural Women for Improvement of their Leadership and Business and Management in Asia and Africa-2020” was initiated in December 2020. Part-I of the training was conducted from 14th to 18th December 2020, followed by Part-II from 14th January 2021 to 2nd February 2021. The objective of the training course is to build the capacity of women leaders and enhance their business management abilities.

It was implemented by ICA-AP in collaboration with National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and the Institute for the Development of Agricultural Cooperation in Asia (IDACA), Japan. 

Mr. Hirofumi Kobayashi, Executive Director, IDACA; Mr. Satyanarayana, Chief Executive, NCUI; Mr. A.K. Taneja, Programme Coordinator, ICA-AP, representatives of nominating organizations and resource persons; and all the participants attended the opening ceremony. Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP, made his opening remarks through a video message. 10 participants from Asian and African countries – India, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, and Swaziland attended the training programme.

Part-II of the program was coordinated by Ms. Eiko Oshita from IDACA. Mr. A.K. Taneja, Programme Coordinator, ICA-AP; Mr. Miyazako Masahiro, Director, MAFF; and Mr. Kobayashi Herofumi, Executive Director, IDACA, addressed the participants and IDACA staff in the closing ceremony.  Mr. Baba Toshihiko, Sr. Executive Director, JA-Zenchu shared his concluding remarks through a video message and Ms. Naomi, a participant from Kenya, presented the vote of thanks. The programme concluded with distribution of participation e-certificates to all the participants by Mr. Kobayashi.